Mermaid grotto and pool

Who doesn't want to create a place for their little mermaid dolls to live.

What you need:

• Sandpit or garden area
• Mermaid dolls (you can get cheap ones from the $2 shop)
• Old plastic paddling pool or slippery slide or a blue rubbish sack
• Shells
• Rocks
• A spade and rake
• Water
• Flowers
• Any other mermaid grotto accessories you can find

Number of players:

Activity:

Step 1: Clean out the sandpit, and rake flat

Step 2: Dig a shallow wide hole, and line with your old paddling pool plastic (cut to size required)

Step 3: Cover the edges of the pool with sand and rocks and decorate with shells and other things.

Step 4: Create a little cave or house for the mermaids using rocks, shells or whatever you have.

Step 5: Fill the pool with water

Step 6: Add Mermaids and have some splashing fun!

Extra ideas:

• Add plastic fish or a little boat to the pool
• Make a slide for the Mermaids to use (use left-over plastic from pool)
• Add flowers and green foliage to the edge of the sandpit

NOTE: As with all water play, your little one needs to be supervised at all times. Empty the pool out when you’re not there. I just poked a small hole in the middle of the pool, and the water drained slowly away without destroying the rest of our construction.

Here are our photos before, and after construction of the Mermaid Grotto and Pool:

First we had to clean out the sandpit, and gather up rocks and shells…

We used the shells she had collected from the beach in the school hols, and got little rocks from around our garden.

Here is the finished grotto and pool. It even has a slide!

Miss 4 had lots of fun being involved with creating the Mermaid “Mini World” and is having just as much fun playing with the Mermaid Dolls, making them dive into the water, and recreating little scenarios from a certain Mermaid Tale DVD that just happens to be her fav! I have to be the friend or the Mum mermaid, and she is the main character of course! She can’t wait for her kindy friends to come over and play and I’ve even seen big brother Mr 10 and Dad coming along to play too!

• This blog was written by Raglanmum, Kidspot Social member, for the Hasbro Month of Play promotion.